Maikel Franco (Royals)

Stats: MiLB | B-Ref | Fangraphs | Baseball America | Baseball Prospectus | MLBFarm

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2014:

Hit: The biggest debate about Franco’s hit tool is not whether he will make contact, but how good the contact will be.  The good news is that he has incredible hand eye coordination and great bat speed.  The bad news is that his aggressive approach and swing length put him in a position where the contact quality can be poor.  If Franco can work on the approach and clean up the swing he has a chance to be a plus hitter, but until then the hit tool is more fringe average to average. Current: 45/ Future Potential: 50

Power: Franco has big time raw power generated from wrist strength and his great bat speed.  The power could play as high as plus plus, but he is going to need to make consistent contact for that to happen.  If the hit tool improves he could be good for 35 HRs a year, if not it could really hurt his most valuable asset. Current: 60/ Future Potential: 70

Speed: Franco is one of the slowest accelerating players in baseball.  He has improved and is not horrible underway, but his speed is a liability in the field, at the plate, and on the bases.  He might improve a little over the next few years, but long term he projects to be fairly immobile. Current: 20/Future Potential: 20

Glove:  At third base Franco has soft hands and fairly good actions.  His range is suspect and it limits the overall profile.  Even with his strengths it is going to take a lot of work for Franco to maintain average defense at third base.  The glove should play fine at first base, but it is too early to make that call. Current: 40/ Future Potential: 50

Arm:  Franco’s arm is his best defensive asset.  He has at least plus arm strength and pretty good accuracy.  He does limit his abilities somewhat by throwing from his hip rather than a more conventional throwing motion.  The Phillies could clean it up a bit to help his overall 3B profile. Current: 60+

2015 Preseason:

Role: First Division Regular
Risk: Medium – Despite the fact that he has already made the major leagues, Franco still has to make some adjustments to his approach in order to get reach his ceiling.
Summary:  In many ways, Franco’s 2014 was not a step backwards; it was just another adjustment along the developmental path.  For many of us, the hype on Maikel Franco a year ago was a bit premature; he still had big problems with his approach at the plate that he needed to work through.  Many of those problems still remain, as Franco still has the bat speed and hand eye coordination to put the bat on the ball, but unfortunately his pitch recognition and approach make these swings ill advised.  Franco still has plus or better raw power, mostly to his pull side.  The swing can get a bit long at times, which forces him to have to make decisions on pitches earlier than he can recognize them.  He should hit for a decent average, with a low walk rate and a fairly low strikeout rate.  The real question is whether he can get the approach to a place where he makes enough quality contact to have the power show up in games.  The biggest strides that Franco made in 2014 were on defense.  Range is still going to be a problem for him at third, but his arm is very strong, and his actions are pretty good.  With a commitment to keeping himself in shape and limber, Franco could be an average defender at third base for the foreseeable future.  Franco’s game has its flaws, but very few players have his combination of power, bat speed, and hand eye coordination.  He should start the year in AAA in order to get another year of team control (and allow the Phillies time to evaluate Cody Asche) but he remains the Phillies’ third baseman of the future.

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• Phillies Minor Thoughts

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[section=Scouting Data:]

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[section=Injury History:]

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[section=Video:]

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